1923. Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the charismatic founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), was unjustly convicted of mail fraud. Garvey was one of the first targets of J. Edgar Hoover, who had recently taken the helm of what would later be known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Hoover harbored a personal vendetta against the black leader and was relentless in his goal to discredit and lessen his influence. Although President Calvin Coolidge eventually commuted Garvey’s sentence, the UNIA to this day demands a complete expunging of Garvey’s unwarranted conviction through both an exoneration and a government apology for violating his rights and smearing his name.

Nkechi Taifa, Special to The Informer 2/28/2014 From the kangaroo courts and lynching laws of yesterday to the still lingering crack vs. powder-cocaine disparity today, miscarriages of justice have been an ever-present feature of the U.S. criminal punishment system. However, there has always been the power to correct mistakes through clemency — a catch-all term for several related procedures, including shortening sentences through commutation, eradicating civil disabilities through pardon, or expunging convictions through exoneration. 1923. Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the charismatic founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), was unjustly convicted of mail fraud. Garvey was one of the first targets of J. Edgar Hoover, who had recently taken the helm of what would later be known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Hoover harbored a personal vendetta against the black leader and was relentless in his goal to discredit and lessen his influence. Although…Read More

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2. Never Stop Reading Garvey identified a straight forward path to learning by advising: “One must never stop reading. Read everything that you can that is of standard knowledge. Don’t waste time reading trashy literature.” He further explained why reading was the best way to learn: “The idea is that personal experience is not enough for a…Read More